Stacey's Sessions

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The Wonderful World of Wiki
Adam Frey (cofounder of wikispaces) and Vicki Davis (teacher - coolcat bloger)
This session was interesting for me but a bit of a review. I did gain access to a lot of new wikispaces to visit to learn more about how to use wiki's with my teachers.
Check out the wiki below for some great ideas:
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/

Digital Literacy in the Elementary Classroom
A panel of three educators discussed their use of Photostory 3 for Windows, and collaborative projects using wiki's. Again it was mostly review for me unfortunately.


Create Your Own Advenure: Interactive Lesson on the Rain Forest
Gail Soriano and Chris Brown

This was a model lesson. Tracy and I had a chance to be a part of the class and vote on during this choose your own adventure lesson.
We used a Promethean Interactive White Board and Activote there student response system. We LOVED it.
They used the choose your own adventure method to teach the kids about the rainforest. Google Earth was essential for this lesson and it inspired me to learn more about Google Earth.

Virtual Math Manipulatives

This session was very useful. I enjoyed having a chance to look at the virtual manipulatives and think about the opportunities for differentiation. We used the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and the Illuminations: Marcopolo Site.

This is the wiki that we can visit to learn more: (Click NECC on the left side for the presentation.)

http://drewpolly.wetpaint.com/page/NECC+2008-+Virtual+Manipulatives

Check out their favorites on his diigo favorites. (Diigo is like del.icio.us with brains.)


Google Earth for the Elementary Teacher
Susan Reeves and Laura Moore, NorthEast ISD

Carla and I attended the Google Earth session. I was hoping to learn more so that I can try and duplicate the model lesson that Tracy and I had experienced yesterday.
If you want to learn how to use Google Earth go to site below and watch a video.
Google Earth latest version: 4.3


  1. Let the kids look for their house. J
  2. Layers < Gallery < Global Awareness (they find very useful.)


From Comics to Trading Cards: Teaching New Literacies Using ReadWriteThink.org
Emily Manning, Lisa Fink, Bridget Hilferty We had the chance to work with the site creating fractured fairy tales, customized trading cards and poems. There are some issues with saving. You can't. You need to complete your project at one sitting. A little problematic... ReadWriteThink.org

For Innovative Teachers Project: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/animal-inquiry/

SMARTBoard Sessions 101 & 202Bret Gensburg
www.eagleti.com - His site
frogstudy.com - His Wife's site (High School Biology and Chemistry Teacher)

LOVED THEM Both!
Lots of SMART Board tips.
  1. Customize the eraser in control panel to the smallest - scaple not snowplow.
  2. Table:
    1. drag and drop items into the table.
    2. They will resize automatically.
    3. They appear to be going behind but they appear in the cell.
    4. To move the table you highlight all cells and move.
  3. Video Player
    1. Will pause video automatically when you are playing a video and you pick up a pen.
    2. These notes will go into a page of notebook.
  4. Linking MP3 Sounds - alarm bells will sound when you click the negative number on the equation. (hide link)

Behind the Curtain...



Beyond Copy and Paste Tammy Worcester

1. Collect Blocks (gather information)
2. Organize Information (critical thinking)
3. Build New Structure (product / presentation)